Jigsaw takes on corporate America in this sixth installment of the usually engrossing, but now fairly played out horror series. A pair of insurance executives find themselves the subject of Jigsaw's latest set of choice based Rube Goldberg torture scenarios. There's also another storyline about law enforcement trying to stop Jigsaw's games (even though Jigsaw died in "Saw 3"). The first Saw film is easily the best. That film was more of a grizzly thriller than a torture porn horror film, which the sequels quickly became. James Wan left after the first film, and Darren Lynn Bousman took over directing the next three films, which were reasonably clever and managed to continue the story without repeating themselves, but from part five on, the series began to repeat itself ad nauseam. As was with part five, the story fo part six serves only an excuse to create new elaborate torture chambers and violent traps where the characters have to repeatedly make awful no-win decisions in order to survive. As a fan of horror films, I will admit that Jigsaw's grizzly "games" hold my interest and each scenario makes me think, "what would I do in that situation?" That's the major hook for the Saw films and it still works here, but that's not really enough to justify this film's existence or the sequels that followed. Still, I suppose this is worth watching if you liked the prior films, even if it's nowhere as good.

Jigsaw returns for the sixth time to further the horror story and continue the gruesome conquest of punishing those the killer deems guilty in terrible ways. Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) carries on the legacy of John Kramer (Tobin Bell) but he has to work harder to cover his tracks. Dan Erikson (Mark Rolston) leads the FBI investigation though he has a misguided belief that a former agent is guilty. He kept it a secret that Agent Lindsey Perez (Athena Karkanis) had survived a Jigsaw attack back in the fourth film. John's ex-wife Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) holds on to a box of Kramer's last wishes but hands over the folders inside when Hoffman demands them. This installment is about Jigsaw continuing his revenge even after he has died.William Easton (Peter Outerbridge) is the focus of this film's terrifying puzzle. He is attacked in his office and wakes up attached to a breathing machine. His decisions at the health insurance company have resulted in people dying so his first task is to hold his breath against a chronic smoker or whoever breaths will have their abdomen squeezed. William makes it out of this test but has to continue forward or explosive bracelets and anklets will explode his limbs. He also must continue forward because his family is held in a cage with a tank of acid above it. It looks like an abandoned zoo and his next step is in a glass observatory. He must choose between his older secretary with her family or a lonely intern. He chooses the intern to die by releasing a chain that makes the young man hang by barbed wire. His third task is to help a lawyer through a maze by stopping steam jets but in the process, he'll get burned. He helps the lawyer through but balks when she tries to cut a key out of his side. A device goes off ripping open her skull. Check out more of this review and others at swilliky.com

SAW 6 is legitimately the best SAW movie since the first one. It's directed by Kevin Greutert, and he is entirely competent. This movie is really good, in comparison to the other ones. The traps are creative, and they're actually ironic this time. I'm not gonna spoil it. Check it out, if you like SAW. Go ahead, tell 'em that Michael sent you. That's my name.

So where were we at now then? Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is still continuing to do the bloody work of the dead John Kramer/Jigsaw (Tobin Bell). In his sights is William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), an unfeeling insurance head who turned down claims by Kramer and a myriad of others on pathetic technicalities. Cue more elaborate traps, painful decisions and some twisty devilment. Yep! It's another Saw movie.Somewhat surprisingly, part 6 is a step up in quality of writing and ingenuity of gore/trap factors from the previous two installments. It's still very much old hat as a formula, and once again the sequences of Bell used in flashback show him to be the franchise's strength. However, the makers put at the core an insurance issue that everyone can identify with, whilst piling on mystery and suspense by way of Jigsaw's left envelopes and the FBI closing in on an increasingly overt confident Hoffman. 7/10